Manchester By The Sea

Synopsis: In Manchester by the Sea, the latest film from award-winning writer and director Kenneth Lonergan, the life of a solitary Boston janitor is transformed when he returns to his hometown to take care of his teenage nephew. The story of the Chandlers, a working-class family living in a Massachusetts fishing village for generations, Manchester by the Sea is a deeply poignant, unexpectedly funny exploration of the power of familial love, community, sacrifice and hope.

After the death of his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler), Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is shocked to learn that Joe has made him sole guardian of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Taking leave of his job, Lee reluctantly returns to Manchester-by-the-Sea to care for Patrick, a spirited 16-year-old, and is forced to deal with a past that separated him from his wife Randi (Michelle Williams) and the community where he was born and raised. Bonded by the man who held their family together, Lee and Patrick struggle to adjust to a world without him.

In his first film since 2011’s acclaimed Margaret, Lonergan once again proves himself a powerful and visionary storyteller as he seamlessly weaves past and present together, crafting a tension-filled tale that deftly eschews sentimentality in favor of penetrating emotional insight and deeply affecting human relationships.

Moonlight

Synopsis: Three time periods – young adolescence, mid-teen and young adult – in the life of black-American Chiron is presented. When a child, Chiron lives with his single, crack addict mother Paula in a crime ridden neighborhood in Miami. Chiron is a shy, withdrawn child largely due to his small size and being neglected by his mother, who is more concerned about getting her fixes and satisfying her carnal needs than taking care of him. Because of these issues, Chiron is bullied, the slurs hurled at him which he doesn’t understand beyond knowing that they are meant to be hurtful. Besides his same aged Cuban-American friend Kevin, Chiron is given what little guidance he has in life from a neighborhood drug dealer named Juan, who can see that he is neglected, and Juan’s caring girlfriend Teresa, whose home acts as a sanctuary away from the bullies and away from Paula’s abuse. With this childhood as a foundation, Chiron may have a predetermined path in life, one that will only be magnified in terms of its problems when he reaches his difficult teen years when peer pressure affects what he and many of his peers do, unless he follows Juan’s advice of truly making his own decisions for himself.

Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer

(NR) • 159 minutes • On-screen here 12/1/16, 12/8/16 & 12/15/16

Set against the backdrop of post-war Britain, John Osborne’s modern classic conjures the seedy glamour of the old music halls for an explosive examination of public masks and private torment. Starring Kenneth Branagh as Archie Rice, and directed by Rob Ashford.

Loving

(PG-13) • 123 minutes • On-screen here from 11/23/16 to 12/8/16

Director: Jeff Nichols

Starring: Ruth Negga,Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon, Marton Csokas

Synopsis: The film follows the courtship and marriage of Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man. They are arrested and sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958, because their interracial marriage violates the state’s anti-miscegenation laws. Exiled to Washington DC, they sue the state of Virginia in a series of proceedings leading to the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Loving v. Virginia, which holds that laws prohibiting interracial marriage are unconstitutional.

A Man Called Ove

(PG-13) • 116 minutes • On-screen here from 11/11/16 to 11/22/16

Director: Hannes Holm

Starring: Rolf Lassgård, Bahar Pars

Synopsis: Stepping from the pages of Fredrik Backman’s international best-selling novel, Ove is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife’s grave, Ove has given up on life. Enter a boisterous young family next door who accidentally flattens Ove’s mailbox while moving in and earning his special brand of ire. Yet from this inauspicious beginning an unlikely friendship forms and we come to understand Ove’s past happiness and heartbreaks. What emerges is a heartwarming tale of unreliable first impressions and the gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it’s shared.

RSC Live: King Lear

King Lear has ruled for many years. As age begins to overtake him, he decides to divide his kingdom amongst his children, living out his days without the burden of power.

A proud man, he allows vanity to cloud his judgment, believing that he can relinquish the crown, but enjoy the same authority and respect he has always known. Misjudging his children’s loyalty he soon finds himself stripped of all the trappings of state, wealth and power he had taken for granted.

Alone in the wilderness he is left to confront the mistakes of a life that has brought him to this point. Following his performance as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s great 20th century American tragedy Death of a Salesman, Antony Sher returns to play King Lear, one of the greatest parts written by Shakespeare. The production is directed by RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran.

Certain Women

Synopsis: Certain Women drops us into a handful of intersecting lives across Montana. A lawyer tries to diffuse a hostage situation and calm her disgruntled client, who feels slighted by a workers’ compensation settlement. A married couple breaks ground on a new home but exposes marital fissures when they try to persuade an elderly man to sell his stockpile of sandstone. A ranch hand forms an attachment to a young lawyer, who inadvertently finds herself teaching a twice-weekly adult education class, four hours from her home.

Denial

(PG-13) • 110 minutes • On-screen here from 10/21/16 to 11/3/16

Director: Mick Jackson

Starring: Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall

Synopsis: Based on the acclaimed book “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier,” DENIAL recounts Deborah E. Lipstadt’s legal battle for historical truth against David Irving, who accused her of libel when she declared him a Holocaust denier. In the English legal system, the burden of proof is on the accused, therefore it was up to Lipstadt and her legal team to prove the essential truth that the Holocaust occurred.

Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo & Juliet

The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company Live cinema season continues with a new vision of Shakespeare’s heartbreaking tale of forbidden love. Branagh and his creative team present a modern passionate version of the classic tragedy.

A longstanding feud between Verona’s Montague and Capulet families brings about devastating consequences for two young lovers caught in the conflict.

Kenneth Branagh co-directs with Rob Ashford, reuniting with the stars of his celebrated film of Cinderella, Richard Madden and Lily James, as Romeo and Juliet. Also featuring Sir Derek Jacobi as Mercutio and Meera Syal as The Nurse.

The Dressmaker

(R) • 119 minutes • On-screen here from 10/14/16 to 10/20/16

Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse

Starring: Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving

Synopsis: In this adaptation of Rosalie Ham’s best-selling novel, a glamorous dressmaker returns to her hometown in rural Australia to reconnect with her ailing mother and exact sweet revenge on the community that banished her as a child. As her plan unfolds, she finds love with a local man and success transforming the town with her exquisite creations.

The Birth of a Nation

(R) • 120 minutes • On-screen here from 10/7/16 to 10/20/16

Director: Nate Parker

Starring: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer

Synopsis: Set against the antebellum South, The Birth of a Nation follows Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities – against himself and his fellow slaves – Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.

Synopsis: We all know the moment. February 9th, 1964, 8:12pm EST – after a brief commercial break, four young men from Liverpool step onto the Ed Sullivan stage, changing culture forever.

Seventy-three million people watched The Beatles perform that night, the largest audience in television history. It was an event that united a nation and signaled the birth of youth culture as we know it today. But while this single performance introduced The Beatles to America, what the band did next would introduce them to the entire world, permanently transforming the music industry and forever engraining them into the fabric of popular culture…

They went on tour.

By the time the band quit touring in August of 1966, they had performed 166 concerts in 15 countries and 90 cities around the world. The cultural phenomenon their touring helped create, known as “Beatlemania,” was something the world had never seen before and, arguably, hasn’t since. It was the first time much of the world felt truly unified – bound by aspiration and attitude, rather than divided by race, class, religion or nationality.

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years tells the story of the band’s exceptional touring years – from the perspectives of the band, its world, the fans, and their world. It will examine the impact of those years on each of The Beatles – the toll that touring took on their relationships and the effect it had on their musical evolution, as well as the colossal boost the tours gave to their lifestyle and fame. But while the band created the spark, it was young people around the world who created the firestorm. The film will also explore the incomparable electricity between performer and audience that turned the music into a movement – a common experience into something sublime.

Almeida Live: Richard III

The Almeida Theatre makes its live screening debut with an explosive new adaptation of Richard III, directed by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold with Ralph Fiennes as Shakespeare’s most notorious villain and Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret.

War-torn England is reeling after years of bitter conflict. King Edward is ailing, and as political unrest begins to stir once more, Edward’s brother Richard – vicious in war, despised in peacetime – awaits the opportunity to seize his brother’s crown.

Through the malevolent Richard, Shakespeare examines the all-consuming nature of the desire for power amid a society riddled by conflict. Olivier-winning director Rupert Goold’s (Macbeth, King Charles III) searing new production hones a microscopic focus on the mythology surrounding a monarch whose machinations are inextricably woven into the fabric of British history.

Don’t Think Twice

Synopsis: For eleven years, an improv group called The Commune has reigned as the big fish in the small pond of their New York improv theater. Commune members Miles, Samantha, Jack, Allison, Bill and Lindsay invent comedy without a script and without a net. They’re ingenious, they’re fast, and they build on each others’ ideas like best friends – which they also are. Night after night they kill onstage and wait for their big break. Day after day they work menial jobs to support themselves.

Then they get news that their theater is shutting down, and scouts from a hit TV show come to a performance looking for talent. Only two cast members get the nod, upsetting the dynamic of the group and leaving its future in doubt. Relationships begin to crack as six best friends face the truth that not all of them will make it, and for some, it may be time to give up on the dream and move on.

Hell or High Water

(R) • 102 minutes • On-screen here from 9/9/16 to 9/22/16

Director: David Mackenzie

Starring: Dale Dickie, Ben Foster, Chris Pine, Jeff Bridges

Synopsis: Hell Or High Water is a modern action drama set in West Texas where the distinction between honest men and outlaws has blurred beyond recognition. In a story about the collision of the old and new West, two brothers — Toby (Chris Pine), a straight-living, divorced father trying to make a better life for his son; and Tanner (Ben Foster), a short-tempered ex-con with a loose trigger finger — come together to rob branch after branch of the bank that is foreclosing on their family land. The hold-ups are part of a last-ditch scheme to take back a future that powerful forces beyond their control have stolen from under their feet. Vengeance seems to be theirs until they find themselves in the crosshairs of a relentless, foul-mouthed Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges) looking for one last triumph on the eve of his retirement. As the brothers plot a final bank heist to complete their plan, a showdown looms at the crossroads where the last honest law man and a pair of brothers with nothing to live for except family, collide.

Captain Fantastic

(R) • 118 minutes • On-screen here from 9/2/16 to 9/8/16

Director: Matt Ross

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Frank Langella, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn

Synopsis: In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, challenging his idea of what it means to be a parent.

Synopsis: Set in the 1930s, a young Bronx native moves to Hollywood where he falls in love with the secretary of his powerful uncle, an agent to the stars. After returning to New York he is swept up in the vibrant world of high society nightclub life.

Swiss Army Man

(R) • 97 minutes • On-screen here from 7/8/16 to 7/14/16

Directors: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

Starring: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Synopsis: Hank, stranded on a deserted island and about to kill himself, notices a corpse washed up on the beach. He befriends it, naming it Manny, only to discover that his new friend can talk and has a myriad of supernatural abilities…which may help him get home.

Maggie’s Plan

Synopsis: Maggie ‘s plan to have a baby on her own is derailed when she falls in love with John, a married man, destroying his volatile marriage to the brilliant and impossible Georgette. But one daughter and three years later, Maggie is out of love and in a quandary: what do you do when you suspect your man and his ex wife are actually perfect for each other?

Free State of Jones

Synopsis: Set during the Civil War, Free State of Jones tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. Banding together with other small farmers and local slaves, Knight launched an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War.

The Lobster

Synopsis: In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.

Love & Friendship

Synopsis:Love & Friendship is an adaptation of young Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan, believed to have been written in the mid 1790s but revised up to a fair copy prepared in 1805 and finally published by her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, in 1871.

Set in the 1790s, earlier than most Austen tales, Love & Friendship concerns beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) who has come to Churchill, the estate of her in-laws, to wait out colourful rumours about her dalliances circulating through polite society.

Whilst ensconced there, she decides to secure a husband for herself and for her daughter, Frederica, played by Morfydd Clark.

Chloë Sevigny, who starred with Beckinsale in Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco (1998), plays Lady Susan’s friend and confidante Alicia Johnson, with Stephen Fry as her husband, the “very Respectable” Mr. Johnson.

The waters are troubled by the arrival at Churchill of the handsome, eligible Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel) and silly but cheerful — and very rich — Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett).

After a series of dramatic turns at Churchill, Lady Susan finally risks destruction when her jealous rival, Lady Lucy Manwaring (Jenn Murray), arrives in London to make a shocking revelation, leading to the denouement of denouements.

The Meddler

(PG-13) • 100 minutes • On-screen here from 5/20/16 to 6/2/16

Director: Lorene Scafaria

Starring: Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne, J.K. Simmons

Synopsis: With a new iPhone, an apartment near the Grove, and a comfortable bank account left to her by her beloved late husband, Marnie Minervini has happily relocated from New Jersey to Los Angeles to be near her daughter Lori, a successful (but still single) screenwriter, and smother her with motherly love. But when the dozens of texts, unexpected visits, and conversations dominated by unsolicited advice force Lori to draw strict personal boundaries, Marnie finds ways to channel her eternal optimism and forceful generosity to change the lives of others – as well as her own – and find a new purpose in life.

A Hologram for the King

(R) • 98 minutes • On-screen here from 5/6/16 to 5/12/16

Director: Tom Tykwer

Starring: Tom Hanks, Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury, Tom Skerritt

Synopsis: Cultures collide when an American businessman is sent to Saudi Arabia to close what he hopes will be the deal of a lifetime. Baffled by local customs and stymied by an opaque bureaucracy, he eventually finds his footing with the help of a wise-cracking taxi driver, and a beautiful Saudi doctor.

Midnight Special

Synopsis: Alton Meyer is a boy unlike any other in the world with bizarrely powerful abilities and strange weaknesses. In the middle of the night, his father, Roy, spirits him away from the isolated cult that practically worships him and is determined to regain him at all costs. At the same time, Alton’s abilities have been noticed by the US government as well and they are equally insistent on getting to the bottom of this mystery with Paul Sevier of the National Security Agency leading the Federal pursuit with his own questions. These rival hunts force father and son into a desperate run towards a looming date with destiny that could change everything.

Remember

(R) • 94 minutes • On-screen here from 4/15/16 to 4/21/16

Director: Atom Egoyan

Starring: Christopher Plummer, Dean Norris, Martin Landau

Synopsis: Remember is the contemporary story of Zev, who discovers that the Nazi guard who murdered his family some 70 years ago is living in America under an assumed identity. Despite the obvious challenges, Zev sets out on a mission to deliver long-delayed justice with his own trembling hand. What follows is a remarkable cross-continent road-trip with surprising consequences.

We The People: The Market Basket Effect

(NR) • 80 minutes • On-screen here from 4/15/16 to 4/21/16

Director: Tommy Reid

Starring: Michael Chiklis

Synopsis: We the People: The Market Basket Effect traces the events that led 25,000 employees and 2 million customers across New England to stand behind embattled CEO Arthur T. Demoulas and wrest control of a multibillion dollar grocery empire from an activist board of directors led by Artie T.’s cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas.

Can regular people band together to alter the balance of power in a major corporation, or is the case of Market Basket a fairytale victory? Narrator Michael Chiklis – who was born and raised in Lowell, where Market Basket began – weaves through on-the-ground footage and thoughtful expert analysis to find out.

Eye In The Sky

(R) • 102 minutes • On-screen here from 4/1/16 to 4/14/16

Director: Gavin Hood

Starring: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, Jeremy Northam

Synopsis: Eye In The Sky stars Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell, a UK-based military officer in command of a top secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya. Through remote surveillance and on-the-ground intel, Powell discovers the targets are planning a suicide bombing and the mission escalates from “capture” to “kill.” But as American pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) is about to engage, a nine-year old girl enters the kill zone triggering an international dispute, reaching the highest levels of US and British government, over the moral, political, and personal implications of modern warfare.

Where To Invade Next

(R) • 120 minutes • On-screen here from 3/25/16 to 3/31/16

Director: Michael Moore

Starring: Michael Moore, Krista Kiuru, Tim Walker

Synopsis: To show what the USA can learn from rest of the world, director Michael Moore playfully visits various nations in Europe and Africa as a one-man “invader” to take their ideas and practices for America. Whether it is Italy with its generous vacation time allotments, France with its gourmet school lunches, German with its industrial policy, Norway and its prison system, Tunisia and its strongly progressive women’s policy and Iceland and its strong female presence in government and business among others, Michael Moore discovers there is much that American should emulate.

Son Of Saul

Synopsis: Two days in the life of Saul Auslander, Hungarian prisoner working as a member of the Sonderkommando at one of the Auschwitz Crematoriums who, to bury the corpse of a boy he takes for his son, tries to carry out his impossible deed: salvage the body and find a rabbi to bury it. While the Sonderkommando is to be liquidated at any moment, Saul turns away of the living and their plans of rebellion to save the remains of a son he never took care of when he was still alive.

The Lady In The Van

Synopsis: Alan Bennett’s story is based on the true story of Miss Shepherd (played by a magnificent Maggie Smith), a woman of uncertain origins who “temporarily” parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years. What begins as a begrudged favor becomes a relationship that will change both their lives. Filmed on the street and in the house where Bennett and Miss Shepherd lived all those years, acclaimed director Nicholas Hytner reunites with iconic writer Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George, The History Boys) to bring this rare and touching portrait to the screen.

Youth (La giovinezza)

Synopsis: Fred and Mick, two old friends, are on vacation in an elegant hotel at the foot of the Alps. Fred, a composer and conductor, is now retired. Mick, a film director, is still working. They look with curiosity and tenderness on their children’s confused lives, Mick’s enthusiastic young writers, and the other hotel guests. While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. But someone wants at all costs to hear him conduct again.

The Danish Girl

Synopsis: Copenhagen, early 1920s. Danish artist, Gerda Wegener, painted her own husband, Einar Wegener, as a lady in her painting. When the painting gained popularity, Einar started to change his appearance into a female appearance and named himself Lili Elbe. With his feminism passion and Gerda’s support, Einar – or Elbe attempted first-ever male to female sex reassignment surgery, a decision that turned into a massive change for their marriage, that Gerda realized her own husband is no longer a man or the person she married before. A childhood friend of Einar, art-dealer Hans Axgil, shows up and starts a complex love triangle with the couple.

Carol

Synopsis: In an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s seminal novel The Price of Salt, Carol follows two women from very different backgrounds who find themselves in an unexpected love affair in 1950s New York. As conventional norms of the time challenge their undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change. A young woman in her 20s, Therese Belivet, is a clerk working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol, an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage. As an immediate connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their connection deepens. While Carol breaks free from the confines of marriage, her husband begins to question her competence as a mother as her involvement with Therese and close relationship with her best friend Abby come to light.

Spotlight

Synopsis: When the Boston Globe’s tenacious “Spotlight” team of reporters delves into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world.

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The Eveningstar Cinema of Brunswick, Maine provides a classically romantic environment for fantasy, pleasure, adventure and fun. We believe in giving you everything you want in an evening at the movies, something we consider not simply a job but a pact, a pact to remember all we have dreamed and all we have hoped, in a night at the theater.